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June Whitaker
June Lamba Whitaker is a former officer in the Imperial Navy, the first and only surving member of Project Resonance and a mercenary briefly employed by Aerion Freeman. Once a dedicated Imperial officer, heir to a notable fortune and a loving mother and wife, the destruction of her beloved country and the deaths of her entire family turned an upstanding servicewoman into a bitter and lonely soldier for hire for years until she found a new purpose in serving the UFSR Navy. Personality and Traits To say June is bitter doesn't even begin to describe things. Any interest in galactic affairs or care for other sentient beings died in her heart along with the Empire and her family. Constantly snarky and generally quite the bitch, she hasn't even developed anything resembling a genuine connection in years to anyone save Siska Rouse, another mercenary on Aerion's crew who only enjoy's June's company thanks to their mutual incredibly brutal torture methods. Even so, it barely even qualifies as a friendship, let alone a meaningful relationship. In particular June has a raging hate-on for Axel Erachin and his gang; in her view, their brutal terrorism, disregard for sentient life and general assholery is a key factor the galaxy's current chaotic state. Numerous times the ex-Imperial has stated her intent to "kill every last one of those godf***ed monsters" to her co-mercenaries. The fact that she briefly worked under one of those exact godf***ed monsters indicates she may never get around to fulfilling that promise. June is also incredibly racist, despising all non-humans and considering them sub-sentient creatures unworthy of any rights. The Reclaimer War only reinforced this attitude, cementing a deep-seated belief that a strong human Empire is the only thing that can save mankind from being squashed out by barbaric aliens. The attitude doesn't win her a whole lot of friends, and was only an impediment during her time employed by Aerion Freeman. History June was born into the prestigious Barclay family in the summer of 59 AF, well into the reign of the Empire and into the lap of luxury that hadn't abated in over a millennium for her clan. Barclay's had a long established traditon of wealth and power going all the way back to Thomas Barclay, California cattle baron in the heyday of the old American West. Military service was just as old a tradition; a Barclay man or woman had served and fought in every single war Americans had been involved with right up until Earth was abandoned for the greener pastures of Mjolnir. Being from such a background, it was natural that June applied to join the Imperial Navy on the very day she turned 18. Between her childhood and four years of officer training, she developed an extremely strong sense of loyalty to the Empire; from her perspective, the strength of the Imperial Military was the only thing keeping the galaxy from descending into absolute hell. Service in the more lawless corners of known space, fighting pirate and mercenary bands responsible for disrupting commerce and ruining or ending the lives of simple folk trying to make their way, only increased the strength of this conviction. Throughout a distinct career filled with honors, medals and rapid rank-climbing, June was one of the largest opponents of the Hired Gun Initiative, having been convinced by experience that mercenaries simply could not be trusted to secure the peace. In-between captaining Imperial battleships, June met and enjoyed a wonderful relationship with one Arthur Whitaker, an officer in the Empire's limited forces of trained HMV pilots. The pair married on New Year's Day 80 AF, and two bright young children followed within just as many years. Even with her concerns about Hired Gun, life seemed to be treating June quite well; a long and glorious service lay ahead, her family was close as could be given both parents' occupations, and retirement into a wealthy corporate position seemed inevitable. Thus was it only natural that a scant half-decade later, her life began to crumble into bits. What should have been a week of simple cargo lane patrol on an Imperial-occupied world turned into chaos when a ship laden with explosives make a kamikaze run on the ISS Tenacious, a battle cruiser June had just taken command of. Damage to the vessel was extensive to say the least - half the crew was killed almost immediately, and those who remained suffered all varying levels of injuries. Whitaker among the least lucky of the second category; a plasma fire vaporized all her limbs, her face, and melted numerous internal organs. Clinging to life for the next few days before aid could arrive was the greatest battle she'd ever fought, to say nothing of the terror her husband and children felt for her safety in the ensuing weeks. Desperate for any possible way to save his wife, Arthur, acting in her stead, wholeheartedly agreed when Imperial Intelligence approached him with an experiment that could restore June to a healthy state. Acting in tandem with Hayakawa Technologies, the Empire inducted bright young June into Project Resonance, a top-secret initiative intended to return disable heroes such as June to combat-ready status by converting them into NSC Synthoids. The body her mind was transferred into went beyond the standard features of a normal Synthoid, however, instead coming pre-built with the ability to meld with the highly experimental Resonance Mech Armor. Between a natural talent for military strategy and technological enhancements easily putting her on the level of supersoldier, June was to be the proof of concept for an operation with goals to secure Imperial dominance once and for all, perhaps even supplanting Project Rise as the primary contingency plan for dealing with the Forefathers. For a time, the program was a complete success. Despite her awkwardness with being transplanted into a robotic body without consenting, June adapted to the situation as best she could, continuing her long-held trend of serving with all she had. Even with limited prior experience in ground combat, she proved an excellent commando able incredibly effective at subterfuge and guerrilla warfare. Thirteen more Imperial veterans joined the project, following in her footsteps as some of the best special operatives the Empire had to offer. It was far from the life she had imagined as a child, but it was still one filled with plenty of honor and more than time enough off from service to maintain a strong family life. Two years later, the real descent into the crapper began. With the Fall of Ossyria's economic devastation, Hayakawa Tech. had to scramble simply to remain solvent following the loss of 60% of all their assets. In such a situation, they were forced to pull out of Project Resonance, effectively stalling all advancement. Soon the program was all but abandoned, with all members becoming little more than a glorified black ops team. Things only began to go downhill from there; amidst the increasing violence in Mjolnir, all but five members of Resonance were killed in action by 92 AF, when a botched mission to gather intel on Hydra League forces in advance of the Assault on Brimstone resulted those surviving few being utterly wiped out save Whitaker. Injuries sustained in combat were repaired just in time for June to be informed in her hospital bed on Homeworld that her beloved Arthur had been killed on Factory by an insane Russian mechanic in a junker mech. The news devastated June to say the least; for the next few days she remained sulking in her home, desperately holding onto her little Amy and Charlie - the last bits of Arthur she had left. Dragging herself out of this depression was a necessity not 72 hours later when the Reclaimers launched their all-out attack on Homeworld, requiring all Imperial soldiers such as June to grab a weapon and fight to defend their capital. It was a losing battle from the very start, with most of Whitaker's time being spent protecting civilians attempting to evacuate. June's own two children boarded one of the last shuttles to take off; relief washed over her for a few scant moments as she watched the ship they were on take off for safety. Such feelings soon shifted to panic mixed with absolute horror as the crazy-ass maneuvers of what appeared to be a wooden spaceship forced the shuttle into a new flight path straight through a major field of fire. The last two things June had with any true value careened to the ground in a fiery wreck as her unit was forced to make their own scramble to an evac shuttle. Things were quite understandably depressed on the ISS Indomitabe over the next few weeks; with the Empire effectively destroyed, supplies swindling and no clear idea of where to proceed, order and discipline soon took a backseat to abandonment of duty in favor of soldiers and officers striking out on their own as mercenaries, pirates, or simply fading into civilian life. Left with nothing save her old Resonance armor and a hopeless sense of loss, June found herself wandering into the galaxy at large as one of the countless guns for hire in need of work following the fall of her precious Empire. In 96 AF, the final insult was made; low on funds and needing any work she could get, June had no choice but to take the only job available - Aerion Freeman, a former member of Erachin's gang and a man high on her Hate List, was in need of mercs to aid in his pirating endeavors. Begrudgingly deciding she was far beyond being above scummish pirates by now anyway, Whitaker reluctantly took the job and joined up with his crew. Category:Characters Category:Synthoids